Extracts from the Journal
of the
Twenty-Third Annual
Convention of
the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Louisiana,
Containing an Extract from the Address of the
Rt. Rev.
Leonidas Polk, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese.
Also, the Report of the Committee
on the State of the Church, with the Resolutions Thereupon
Adopted:
Electronic Edition.

Episcopal Church.
Diocese of Louisiana

Funding from the Institute of
Museum and Library
Services supported the electronic publication of this
title.

Call number 4533 Conf.
(Rare Book Collection, UNC-CH)

The electronic edition
is a part of the UNC-CH
digitization project, Documenting the American
South. Any hyphens occurring
in line breaks have been
removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to
the preceding line.
All quotation marks,
em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as
entity references.
All double right and
left quotation marks are encoded as "
and "
respectively.
All single right and
left quotation marks are encoded as '
and ' respectively.
All em dashes are
encoded as --
Indentation in lines
has not been preserved.
Running titles have
not been preserved.
Spell-check and
verification made against printed text using
Author/Editor (SoftQuad) and Microsoft Word spell check programs.

EXTRACTS
FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE
Twenty-Third Annual Convention
OF THE
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
IN THE
DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA,
CONTAINING AN EXTRACT FROM THE
ADDRESS OF THE RT. REV. LEONIDAS POLK, D.D.,
Bishop of the Diocese.
ALSO, THE
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE STATE OF THE CHURCH,
WITH THE RESOLUTIONS THEREUPON ADOPTED.

NEW ORLEANS:
PRINTED AT THE BULLETIN BOOK AND JOB OFFICE.
1861.

Extract from Bishop Polk's Address.

On the 26th of January, the State of Louisiana, in the exercise
of her indefeasible right, severed her connection with the
Government of the United States, resumed the powers of
which she had divested herself, and became a separate and Independent
Sovereignty. This act carried with it the political
allegiance of her citizens. Their Supreme Government ceased
to be that of the United States, and became that of the State
of Louisiana, to which alone they owed a paramount fealty,
and all the duties growing out of such a relationship. This
change of allegiance, Churchmen shared in common with
others, and it became their duty promptly to demonstrate their
recognition of that change, in the forms in which the Founder
of our Holy Religion required his followers to recognize de
facto Governments. In the affair of the Tribute Money, he lays
down the doctrine that such Governments have a right to claim
from their citizens or subjects the support necessary for their
effective maintenance, a right founded on the fact that the
State, as well as the Church, is a Divine Institution, under
whatever form of organization it may be presented. In the
administration of Divine Providence, the Ruler of the Universe
casteth down one and putteth up another, choosing for himself
the instruments best adapted to effect his ends. So that,
whether it be Sanhedrim or Cæsar, "the Powers that be are
ordained of God." They are to be supported, not only with
material aid and personal services, but by supplications and
prayer. Hence arises the duty of the Church, on the occurrence

of any established change of Government, to alter her formularies,
so as to make them conform to the new condition of things.
It was clear, therefore, in the circumstances in which we were
placed, that an alteration in the Services of the Book of Common
Prayer, after the separation of Louisiana from the Government of
the United States, was indispensable. It was an alteration
forced by the necessity of obedience to the Law of Christ Himself.
This was felt by the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese generally,
not less than by myself. But under the Constitution and
Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States,
there existed no authority accessible to us competent to meet the
emergency. Section 14, Canon 13, Title I, it is true, gives
to the Bishop of each Diocese authority "to compose forms of
prayer, as the case may require, for extraordinary occasions;"
and under its provisions I set forth for the National Fast the
form appended to my Pastoral Letter of 28th December. The
case now presented is altogether different. It called for an
alteration in the matter of the Book of Common Prayer
itself, a prerogative withheld from the Bishops, because expressly
surrendered by them and their Diocesan Conventions,
at the time they adopted the Constitution. This power is
vested in the General Convention alone. In the 8th Article of
the Constitution of the National Church, it is provided that
"no alteration or addition shall be made in the Book of Common
Prayer, unless the same shall be proposed in one General
Convention, and, by a resolve thereof, made known to the Convention
of every Diocese, and adopted at the subsequent General
Convention." The delay involved in an effort to comply
with this provision, even supposing, when it was allowed, it
would have met the case, was manifestly forbidden by the
pressing nature of the emergency. What, then, was to be
done? A conflict now arose between the duty we, as a Diocese,
owed to the provisions of a Constitution which bound us
to pray for the Rulers of one Government, and the duty we
owed to the Law of Christ Himself, which required us to pray
for those of another. In such a case, the latter must, of necessity,
prevail, though it be at the expense of the overthrow of

the Constitution whose provisions we should be forced thus deliberately
to repudiate. It has prevailed. And although we
have not as a Diocese, in our assembled capacity, pronounced
upon and avowed this repudiation, yet we have done so in
effect. My view of the duties of my office, under those circumstances,
required me to address to you my Pastoral Letter
of the 30th January, setting forth and directing certain alterations
in the Book of Common Prayer; and your views of the
duties of yours, authorized you to accept and use those alterations
in the public services of the Church. Of the propriety
and duty of the course we have pursued in this matter, notwithstanding
the effect of our action on our relations under
the Constitution to the Church in the United States, I have
not a doubt, nor can the reasoning which has led us to
our present position be successfully controverted.

There was a time in the History of the Church in Louisiana,
when it was not under the authority of the Constitution of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America,
and when there was no Constitutional Union existing between
it and the Dioceses in the United States. The 5th Article of
the Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the
United States, provides for the admission of Dioceses not in
Union, on their agreeing to accede to that instrument, and the
Diocese of Louisiana having embodied the required stipulation,
in the 1st Article of her Constitution, was admitted on
application.

In accepting the constitutional connexion which was thus
established, our Diocese did not intend to impose upon herself
impossible obligations, which in any future contingency
would conflict with her duties to Christ. There are duties
and rights which, in the case of Communities as of individual
Christians, are inalienable, and which, in the nature
of things, must always be reserved. In the case under consideration,
the duty we have performed and the right to
perform it, are of that character; and to discharge the former,
we have been obliged to resume the latter. And thus having
the exercise of our original powers remitted us, we have been

forced, whether we would or not, into the position of Diocesan
Independence.

It will be perceived, then, that our ecclesiastical position
results from the political action of the State of Louisiana in
separating herself from the Federal Government of the United
States; and from the effect of that action on the provisions of
the Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the
United States. Not that it has been accomplished by any act
of the Legislature of the State in an attempt to exercise direct
civil control over the political or ecclesiastical relations of the
Church. To such influences the Church in this country is happily
in no wise subject.

But while the Church is entirely free from interference on
the part of the State, she is nevertheless not exempt from the
consequences of the action of the State on her present attitude
in Louisiana. She assumes what her duty to her Lord requires her
to assume, that, though she be compelled to set aside her obligations
to her Ecclesiastical Constitution in the United States
of America, she must follow her Nationality.

It must not be forgotten that a written Constitution, such as
that which binds the Dioceses of the United States together, is
a novelty in the Church, no other instance of the kind being
known to her history. It was adopted in imitation of the action
of the States within whose boundaries our Dioceses lay. It was
a measure of expediency, and for all the purposes it was competent
to serve, a wise one. But it was not a necessary condition of
the Church's Unity. It served the purpose of binding the
Dioceses in a Union of amity, and promoted their efficiency as
propagandist of the Faith on this continent and elsewhere. It
thus accomplished a holy mission. And while we with hearts
filled with sorrow lament the uprising of the influences which
have checked it in its blessed work, we yet cannot allow that
its presence or its absence is material to the Unity of the
Church. The destruction of this constitutional bond, while it
may be lamented, carries not with it the destruction of the
Oneness of the Body of Christ. The elements of which that consists
are of a higher and more enduring nature.

Of the support we shall find in the history of the Church
Universal in its first and present ages for the action of our
Diocese, in accepting and maintaining, if need be, an independent
position, it is not necessary here to speak. The normal
condition of the Dioceses of the Catholic Church is that of
separate Independence. A departure from that condition has
ever been the fruit of expediency only.

Under the promptings of this expediency, I have, as the
Senior Bishop of the Diocese in the Confederate States, in
conjunction with the Bishop of Georgia, the next in seniority,
ventured to address a Circular Letter to our brother Bishops
in the Confederate States to be by them laid before their respective
Conventions, inviting them to unite in a Convention to
be held in Montgomery, Alabama, on the 3d of July next; the
Convention, when held, to be composed of the Bishops of the
several Dioceses in these States, and of three Clerical and
three Lay Delegates. The object of this Convention is to
consult upon such matters of interest to the Church as have
arisen out of the changes in our civil affairs, with the view
of securing uniformity and harmony of action.

I have heard from several of the Dioceses, and there is reason
to believe that the measure will meet with general favor.
A letter just received by me from the Bishop of Texas informs
me that his Diocese, at its late Convention accepted the
invitation and elected the requisite Delegates.

I have now respectfully to submit to you, my brethren, the
proposal to unite on this measure. It cannot but be regarded
as one of prudence and wisdom. And I humbly trust it may
lead to such action as may secure to us all the freedom necessary
to Diocesan Efficiency and all the Union which is demanded
for the wisest application of our energies and resources.

Appendix to the Bishop's Address.

CIRCULAR OF DECEMBER 29, 1860.

The Clergy of the Diocese of Louisiana are requested to use
the following Prayer, on the day appointed by the President of
the United States, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer;
and at such other times as may seem advisable during the
existing emergency.

LEONIDAS POLK,Bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana.

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 29,1860.

PRAYER.

Oh Almighty God, the Fountain of all wisdom, and the Helper
of all who call upon Thee: We, thy unworthy servants, under
a deep sense of the difficulties and dangers by which we are
now surrounded, turn our hearts to Thee in earnest supplication
and prayer. We humble ourselves before Thee; we confess
that as a nation and as individuals, we have grievously
offended Thee; and that our sins have justly provoked thy
wrath and indignation against us. Deal not with us, Oh Lord,
according to our iniquities, but according to thy great and
tender mercies, and forgive us all that is past. Turn thine
anger from us, and visit us not with those evils we most justly
have deserved. Guide and direct us in all our consultations;
save us from all ignorance, error, pride and prejudice; and if
it please thee, compose and heal the divisions which disturb
us. Or else, if in thy good providence it be otherwise appointed,
grant, we beseech Thee, that the spirit of wisdom and
moderation may preside over our councils, that the just

rights of all may be maintained and accorded, and the blessings
of peace preserved to us and our children throughout all generations.
All which we ask through the merits and mediation of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.--AMEN.

PASTORAL LETTER OF JANUARY 30, 1861.

To the Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in
the Diocese of Louisiana:

MY BELOVED BRETHREN--The State of Louisiana having, by a
formal ordinance, through her Delegates in Convention assembled,
withdrawn herself from all further connection with the
United States of America, and constituted herself a separate
Sovereignty, has, by that act, removed our Diocese from within
the pale of "The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United
States." We have, therefore, an Independent Diocesan existence.

Of the circumstances which have occasioned this act, it may
not be necessary now to speak. They are familiar to you all.
It is, however, our happiness to know that in canvassing the
sum of the political grievances of which we have complained,
we find no contribution made to it by brethren of our own
household. Our Church in the non-slaveholding States, as
everywhere, has been loyal to the Constitution and the laws.
Her sound conservative teaching and her well-ordered organization,
have held her steadily to her proper work, and she has
confined herself simply to preaching and teaching the Gospel
of Christ. Surrounded by a strong pressure on every side, she
has successfully resisted its power, and has refused to lend the
aid of her Conventions, her pulpits, and her presses to the radical
and unscriptural propagandism which has so degraded
Christianity, and plunged our country into its unhappy condition.

In withdrawing ourselves, therefore, from all political connection
with the Union to which our brethren belong, we do so
with hearts filled with sorrow at the prospect of its forcing a
termination of our ecclesiastical connection with them also,
and that we shall be separated from those, whose intelligence,

patriotism, christian integrity and piety, we have long known,
and for whom we entertain sincere respect and affection. Unfortunately,
the class they represent was numerically too small
to control their section. They have been overborne, and
silenced, and a different description of mind and character is
in the ascendant. The principles and purposes of this party
have long been the subject of careful observation by the people
of the Southern States, and they have watched its rise and
progress with anxious solicitude. They thought they saw in
it, the seeds of all the evil from which our country is now
suffering, and have not failed to employ all the resources at their
command to avert it. Their efforts have been fruitless, and
they have seen no way of escape from the consequences to
themselves and their posterity, other than that they have taken.
Of the justice of our cause, we have no doubt. Of the wisdom
of the measures we have adopted to maintain it, we may
judge from the character of the men who are engaged in supporting
them. With here and there an exception, they represent
the intelligence, the character, and the wealth of the
State. We have taken our stand we humbly trust, in the fear
of God, and under a sense of the duty we owe to mankind.

Our separation from our brethren of "The Protestant Episcopal
Church in the United States" has been effected, because
we must follow our Nationality. Not because there has been
any difference of opinion as to Christian Doctrine or Catholic
usage. Upon these points we are still one. With us, it is a
separation, not division, certainly not alienation. And there is
no reason why, if we should find the union of our Dioceses
under one National Church impracticable, we should cease to
feel for each other the respect and regard with which purity of
manners, high principle, and a manly devotion to truth, never
fail to inspire generous minds. Our relations to each other
hereafter will be the relations we both now hold to the men
of our Mother Church of England.

But the time has not arrived for entering fully into the discussion
of the questions suggested by this occasion, and I have
so far remarked upon them, because some notice of our relations
to the National Church from which we have separated,

seemed called for by the event, and because of the necessity
that event creates for certain alterations in the services of our
Book of Common Prayer.

In pursuance of this necessity, and under the authority of
my office, I appoint, for the present, the following changes, and
request my brethren of the Clergy to observe them on all occasions
of public worship.

In the prayer for those in Civil Authority, for the words "the President
of the United States," use the words "Governor of
this State."

In the prayer for Congress, for the words, "the people of
these United States in general, and especially for their Senate
and Representatives in Congress assembled," substitute the
words, "the people of this State in general, and especially for
their Legislature now in session."

I also appoint the following prayer to be used during the
session of the Convention of this State, and during the session
of the Convention to be composed of such other States
as have withdrawn from the late Federal Union, and propose
to join Louisiana in the formation of a separate Government.

I remain, very truly, your obedient servant in Christ,

LEONIDAS POLK,
Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church
in the Diocese of Louisiana.

NEW ORLEANS, January 30th, 1861.

A PRAYER, TO BE USED DURING THE SESSION OF CONVENTION.

Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, whose
never-failing providence ordereth all things in heaven and
earth: We, thy unworthy servants, commend to thy special
protection the Convention of this State,* now in session. Impress
them with a deep sense of the responsibility with which
they are charged. Grant unto them the spirit of wisdom and
moderation, the spirit of knowledge and of a sound mind, and
* Should the Convention of those States which have withdrawn from the Union
be in session at the same time, introduce here the words, "and the Convention of
Southern States." If either Convention should adjourn, the other being in
session, the language used will be altered accordingly.

fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of thy holy fear. Preserve
them from the delusions of pride and vainglory. Deliver them
from the temptation to aim at other ends than those which promote
thy glory and the best interests of their country. Save
them from the fear or favor of men. Make plain their way before
them, and strengthen their hearts, that they may pursue it
with firmness, even to the end. And grant, O Lord, that
through their labors, under the guidance of thy Good Spirit,
all things may be so settled, that we may be protected and defended
from all injustice; that our rights may be amply secured;
and that the course of this world may be so peaceably
ordered, that we may joyfully serve Thee in all Godly quietness.
All of which we ask through the merits and mediation
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. AMEN.

CIRCULAR OF FEBRUARY 20,1861.

To the Clergy of the Diocese of Louisiana:

The progress of affairs makes it expedient to direct further
changes in the public services of the Church.

In the Prayer for those in civil authority, for the words
"the President of the United States," substitute the words
"the President of the Confederate States."

In the special prayer set forth in my letter of the 30th ult.,
for the words "and the Convention of Southern States," substitute
the words "and the Congress of the Confederate
states."

The prayer for the Legislature, as already indicated, will
be continued during its sessions.

I remain very truly, your servant in Christ,

LEONIDAS POLK,
Bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana.

NEW ORLEANS, FEBRUARY 20,1861.

PASTORAL LETTER OF MARCH 28, 1861.

To the Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in
the Diocese of Louisiana:

that, since the publication of my Pastoral Letter of the 30th
January, some embarrassment has arisen in certain minds, as
to the disposition of such funds as have been usually raised
for Foreign and Domestic Missions.

The object of that Letter was to declare the theoretical status
of our Diocese, consequent upon the change of our Nationality,
by the separation of Louisiana from the United States of
America, and to submit that status as my authority, in the face
of my "Promise of Conformity" "to the Discipline and Worship
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States
of America," for directing such changes in the Book of Common
Prayer as a paramount expediency and the law of Christ
Himself, in such a case demanded. It concluded nothing
beyond. It, nevertheless, looked farther. It contemplated the
merging of our State Nationality, perfect and complete in itself,
into that of a Confederation, "to be composed of such other
States as have withdrawn from the late Federal Union," and so,
our Diocese into a Union with Dioceses in these States, under a
common Constitution. Nay, more; it did not undertake to
decide whether a Union of the Dioceses within the seceded
States with those in the United States, from which they were
thus separated, would, under any form, be "impracticable."
It only indicated the relations which would subsist between
them in case such a union should not be found feasible. It
took the ground that, from the terms and conditions of the
Book of Common Prayer, the Constitution and Canons of the
"Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America,"
and from the necessities of the case, a separation of the Dioceses
in the seceding States was forced from the Dioceses of the
United States. It drew a distinction between Union in
Legislation, whether Constitutional or Canonical, and Unity,
in Christian Doctrine and Catholic usage. The former is national,
and, therefore, local, and is subject properly to such
changes as the law of expediency or of necessity may demand.
The latter is universal, and beyond the reach of all changes
in political government, being that in which consists the essence
of the Oneness of the Body of Christ.

involve a breach of Church Unity. "The liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free" may allow us, without offence, to
accept a status which necessity, not to say the Providence of
God, has forced upon us, provided the doctrine of his Church
and the order of its administrations in all of those things
which are vital, be left unimpaired.

The Confederation of these States, which, at the date of
that Letter, was a foreshadowed event, has now become a
reality. The organization of the new Government has been
completed, and a permanent Constitution adopted. Time has
not allowed us, as yet, opportunity to consult with our sister
Dioceses as to the course proper to be pursued, either with
reference to a separate organization, or as to what relations it
may be practicable to establish with our sister Dioceses in the
United States.

I cannot doubt, however, that some plan will be adopted by
which the Dioceses of the Confederate States will be brought
into a practical union, and I do not now see why some basis of
connection may not be agreed upon, by which our respective
organizations, North and South, while left free in all those
respects in which freedom is expedient, may continue to act
together in such things as are above the merely local, and in
which greater efficiency would result from a union of our
resources and energies.

These details, however, must be left to the developments of
the future. In the mean season, as our confidence, in its largest
measure, in the Christian integrity, zeal, and judiciousness of
our brethren who have charge of the Foreign and Domestic
Missions of the Church is undiminished, I recommend that
such funds as may have been, or may hereafter be, collected
for those objects, be sent forward as heretofore. Such changes
as may be expedient will be made, as events progress, and as
expediency may dictate.

I remain, very truly your obedient servant, in Christ,

LEONIDAS POLK,
Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church
in the Diocese of Louisiana.

COMMITTEE ON THE STATE OF THE CHURCH.

GRACE, CHURCH, MAY 2, 1861.
By request of the Rev. C. S. Hedges, D. D., Chairman of Committee,
the Rev. John Fulton, from the Committee on the State
of the Church, presented the following

REPORT.

The Committee on the State of the Church beg respectfully
to report: That there is great cause for gratitude to Almighty
God for the continued prosperity of the Church in this Diocese.
The large number of new Congregations admitted into Union
with the present Convention, and the number of Confirmations,
greater by one-third than any previous year, is an evident

proof that the hand of God is with us, and that the cause of
our Zion is prospering within our borders.

But the shortness of the time allowed, and the importance
of the matters falling under their consideration, compel the
Committee to dismiss with these remarks the subjects commonly
embraced in the Report they are required to make, and
which, in general, relate exclusively to the internal operations
of the Church. The state of the Church implies as well the state
of her relations to the Church at large, as the condition of her
ordinary operations. Therefore, the Committee feel themselves
obliged to lay formally before Convention what they conceive
to be our true relation to the whole body of Christ's Church
Catholic, and particularly to that Branch of it to which we
lately belonged--the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United
States of America;--a duty which is forced upon us by the fact
that Louisiana has within the last year separated from the
Nationality of which she previously formed a part and joined
with other Sovereign States in forming a new Nation, to which
she and we, her citizens, to-day owe our allegiance. The
simple question which we have to meet is, whether any change
in our relations, as a Church, to the Church in the United
States, is, or of right ought to be, involved in the change of
National relations which has taken place. In answering this
question, the Committee asks to be indulged in stating briefly
the reasons which have prevailed in bringing them to the conclusion
they feel bound to lay before Convention. A brief,
synoptical form will probably be found the best, as its deficiencies
in mere detail can readily be supplied by the learning
of the members of Convention.

First, then, The Diocese of Louisiana, like every other Diocese,
is an integral portion of the One Catholic and Apostolic
Church, in the Unity of which she cannot cease to be embraced,
but by lapsing into heresy or schism; for the Unity of the
Church Catholic is Unity in true Faith and Apostolic Order.
Holding the Catholic faith, and having an Apostolic Ministry,
rightly and duly administering Christ's Holy Sacraments, this
Diocese possesses all that is essential to her being as a true and

valid member of the One Church Catholic and Apostolic. With
these she would have been truly in the Unity of the Church,
though she had never been conjoined with any other Dioceses
in a Union such as that which forms the Protestant Episcopal
Church in the United States of America; and having these,
though in the matter of her government, she should, by circumstances
be dissevered for a time from every other Diocese,
her Catholicity must still be perfect, and the Church's Unity
in her regard unbroken. Acknowledging "One Lord, One
Faith, One Baptism," with the Universal Church, there is between
her and all other Churches "Unity of Spirit" in the
Apostolic "Bond of Peace." This Unity no mere political or
National disturbances or revolutions can destroy, and this Bond
cannot be impaired by any changes among States or Nations.

2. But Unions among Churches are altogether different
from the Unity of the Church. The Unity of the Church is
unity in believing and doing all that God has taught, and
therefore as a matter of Divine precept, is eternal in its obligation,
while Unions of Churches are voluntary combinations for
purposes of practical expediency, and therefore may be
changed whenever sound expediency requires that they should
be dissolved.

3. And it does not appear that in the days of the Apostles,
or for some time afterwards, any local combinations between
Dioceses were formed. It does not appear that under Apostolic
direction, Ephesus, with its Bishop Timothy, or Crete,
with its Bishop Titus, were formally conjoined with any other
Dioceses. On the contrary, it appears from the tenor of Holy
Scripture, and the testimony of ancient authors, that every
Diocese was originally independent of every other.

4. When for reasons of expediency unions among Dioceses
were entered into, it was by free consent among the parties to
them. Considerations of convenience required them to be
limited in their extent, and at first of choice, afterwards by the
decrees of Councils, they were made coextensive with the divisions
of the empire which had been established by the Civil
Power. In every Province the Senior Bishop, or the Senior

Church was allowed a certain precedence over the others, and
out of this grew first the Metropolitical and afterwards the
Patriarchal arrangements of the Church.

5. At the disruption of the Roman Empire the Provincial
distribution of the Church was merged into the National.
Bishops and Dioceses in every nation being drawn together by
the influence of national affinity, combined for the common
benefit, and chiefly for the sake of Liturgical Uniformity, in
forming Churches conterminous in jurisdiction with the nations
to which they owed temporal allegiance.

6. It was with the element of Nationality in Churches that
the Papacy had most to contend, and side by side with the
suppression of this principle we find the constant growth of
Papal usurpations and corruptions.

7. It was natural therefore that the Church when reformed
should resume that of which Rome had robbed her; and the
fact is, that the articles and canons of our mother Church of
England show her to be intensely National. Her Articles of
subscription are such that she requires her Clergy to deny the
existence in any foreigner of any power or authority ecclesiastical
or spiritual within the Realm of England, or any of her
dependencies.

8. Hence the Clergy of the United States, after the Revolution,
having ceased to be subjects of the Crown, ceased likewise
to be Clergy of the Church of England, so that the ecclesiastical
Independence of the Churches in the Colonies was, of necessity
included in the Independence of the Colonies themselves.

9. As was to be expected, the Churches of the United
States and the Dioceses into which they were distributed, combined
to form a Church as strictly National as that of England.
After a careful study of her Constitution and her Canons,
this Committee cannot forbear arriving at the determinate conclusion
that they are of such a nature as to exclude from her
any Diocese whose territory may have ceased to be a portion
of the United States.

(a.) Her corporate style and designation is such as clearly to
define her territorial limits. She is the Protestant Episcopal

Church IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Her boundaries are
those of the United States, beyond which she does not seek to
include any other Churches whatsoever.

(b.) By the Fifth Article of her Constitution, the implication
involved in her corporate designation is defined in terms. By
that Article, the admission of Dioceses into Union with the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America
is limited to Dioceses formed, or to be formed, within the States
or Territories of that country; so that none can constitutionally
be admitted which do not lie territorially within her boundaries.
It is evident that that which is an indispensable condition of
admission to Union with her, must be indispensable to continuance
in that Union. Consequently, when the State in
which our Diocese is situated ceased to form a part of the
United States, that condition failing on our part, we ceased
ipso facto to retain that formal union with her of which territorial
position within the United States is an indispensable
condition. Had the Church in Louisiana, Florida, or Texas,
been as perfectly formed and furnished as at present, they
could not, previously to the annexation of those States to the
United States, have been admitted, under this Article, to Union
with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. They
were admitted, because, at the time of their application, those
States lay within the boundaries of the United States. Having
now ceased to belong to the United States, a fair construction of
the Article requires us to hold them removed beyond the jurisdiction
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.

(c.) But had any doubt been possible, under Article Fifth of
the Constitution, that doubt would be removed by the express
terms of Article Tenth. The Confederate States of America
form a country foreign to the United States, and on failure of
the Episcopate in any of these, were we to look to the Protestant
Episcopal Church in the United States for its continuance,
the facts of the case would require application to be
made, not in the manner heretofore open to us, but as is required
by Article Tenth of the Constitution, in which special provision
is made for the consecration of Bishops, not for foreign

Churches, but for foreign Countries. By this Article, such
Bishops, so consecrated, would not be eligible to the office of
Diocesan or Assistant Bishop in any Diocese of the United
States, nor entitled to a seat in the House of Bishops, nor
could they lawfully exercise any Episcopal authority in those
States. In other words, as Bishops of a foreign country, they
could not be, nor become, Bishops of the UnitedStates--a constitutional
provision evidently reaching to Bishops now in this
position, as well as to those who might thus, by possibility, be
placed in it. Our Bishops are now Bishops of a country foreign
to the United States, and cannot, therefore, by her own
provision, any longer be regarded as Bishops of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in the United States.

(d.) If anything were yet wanting to confirm the view that
the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States is most
distinctively and strictly National, it might be fully supplied
from the Canon Law of the Church with respect to Foreign and
Domestic Missionary Bishops. (See Title I, Canon 13, Section
7, Clauses 1 and 5; also Section 8, Clauses 1 and 2, of the
same Canon.) The Domestic Missionary Bishop, whose jurisdiction
lies within the States or Territories of the U.S., is entitled
to a seat in the House of Bishops, from which the foreign
Missionary Bishop is excluded. The former, moreover, is eligible
to the Episcopate of a vacant Diocese in the United States; the
latter is ineligible, but with the consent of three-fourths of the
Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Church in Convention
assembled. Thus, of two Bishops elected and consecrated in
the same way, by the same parties, and governed by Canons
of the same Convention, the one, because his jurisdiction lies
within the United States, is invested with the right of voice
and vote in the Convention by which he is governed, besides
other important privileges, from which the other is excluded,
for no other reason than that he is called to exercise his functions
in a foreign land.

From all these considerations, and others too numerous to
be embraced in the limits of this report, the Committee feel
themselves compelled to the conclusion that, whereas, the

Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America
is, and was, rightly intended to be a strictly National body,
into which the Diocese of Louisiana was admitted, because,
at the time of her admission, the State of Louisiana formed a
portion of the United States; and whereas, Louisiana has dissolved
the Union formerly existing between her and the United
States, and so separated from that nation, therefore, the Diocese
of Louisiana has ceased to belong to the National Protestant
Episcopal Church of the United States of America.
And whereas, the State of Louisiana has entered into a new
Confederacy, and now is part of a new Nation, therefore, as
the highest expediency has, from very early times, prompted
such confederations among adjacent Dioceses of the Catholic
Church as might advance their common wellfare; and as nature
and experience, no less than the highest prudence, teach that
such Confederations should be National, like that in the United
States, therefore, this Diocese, in the opinion of this Committee,
ought, in the exercise of that liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free, to take such steps as may be necessary to the
formation of a National Protestant Episcopal Church in the
Confederate States of America.

It is needless, after what has been previously said, that the
Committee should declare that, so far forth as Louisiana is concerned,
the Unity of the Church is unbroken; nor need the
Committee frame new words to express the never-failing love
which every member of this Diocese must always have for our
brethren of the Church in the United States. We prefer, in
this connection, to adopt the words of our Right Reverend
Father, as we find them in his Pastoral Letters. They represent
the cherished sentiments of every churchman in the
Diocese:

"It is our happiness to know that in canvassing the sum
of the political grievances of which we have complained, we
find no contribution made to it by brethren of our own household.
Our Church in the non-slaveholding States, as everywhere,
has been loyal to the Constitution and the laws. Her
sound conservative teaching and her well-ordered organization,

have held her steadily to her proper work, and she has confined
herself simply to preaching and teaching the Gospel of Christ.
Surrounded by a strong pressure on every side, she has successfully
resisted its power, and has refused to lend the aid of
her Conventions, her pulpits and her presses to the radical
and unscriptural propagandism which has so degraded Christianity,
and plunged our country into its unhappy condition.

"In withdrawing ourselves, therefore, from all political
connection with the Union to which our brethren belong, we do so
with hearts filled with sorrow at the prospect of its forcing a
termination of our ecclesiastical connection with them also,
and that we shall be separated from those, whose intelligence,
patriotism, christian integrity and piety, we have long known,
and for whom we entertain sincere respect and affection.

"Our separation from our brethren of 'The Protestant
Episcopal Church in the United States' has been effected,
because we must follow our Nationality. Not because there
has been any difference of opinion as to Christian doctrine or
Catholic usage. Upon these points we are still one. With us,
it is a separation, not division, certainly not alienation. And
there is no reason why, if we should find the union of our
Dioceses under one National Church impracticable, we should
cease to feel for each other the respect and regard with which
purity of manners, high principle, and a manly devotion to truth,
never fail to inspire generous minds."

It remains then only that the Committee should present this
most important subject for the action of Convention in the
form of resolutions.

RESOLUTIONS.

WHEREAS, The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United
States of America, is and was rightly intended to be a strictly
National body, not admitting into union with it Dioceses situated
in foreign countries;

AND WHEREAS, The State of Louisiana has by ordinance dissolved
the Union formerly existing between it and the United

States of America, thereby making the State of Louisiana
foreign to the United States; therefore,

Resolved, That the Diocese of Louisiana has ceased to be a
Diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United
States of America.

BUT WHEREAS, The universal experience of the Catholic
Church has from a very early time shown the necessity of such
local combinations among Dioceses as might advance the common
welfare,

AND WHEREAS, Reasons of the highest expediency demand
that the Church should in this respect follow the Nationalities
which in the order of Divine Providence may be raised up,
therefore

Resolved, That the Diocese of Louisiana loyal to the Doctrine,
Discipline and Example of the Holy Catholic Church, and
closely following the model of our Mother Church of England,
and our Sister Dioceses in the United States, is desirous of
entering into Union with the remaining Dioceses of the Confederate
States for the formation of a National Protestant
Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America.

Resolved further, That this Convention will appoint Delegates
to represent the Diocese in a Convention of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, to be
held at Montgomery, in the State and Diocese of Alabama, on
the 3d day of July next.